The Organist and the Magistrate by Richard Trahair

Author:Richard Trahair
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Short Stories
Publisher: The Book Guild
Published: 2023-11-14T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWO

Towards the end of July a colleague and I were to present a session at one of the secondary schools on the outskirts of the city. This was an hour’s worth of structured engagement with the school kids organised by the Magistrates Association as part of their long-established project ‘Magistrates in the Community’. Some of us on the Bench offered to take part in the programme annually, and I had done so for at least twenty years. It was very rewarding, encouraging the youngsters to think logically and decide sample cases using the skills of justice: compassion, deterrence, punishment and rehabilitation in appropriate measure, often with results that surprised them. Boys at the fee-paying prep schools tended rather amusingly to focus more on punishment than did their similar year groups at an academy. Grammar-school kids and those from the better comprehensives struck the most measured balance in my experience. The big famous public schools rarely chose to take part.

At any rate, this particular occasion went quite well. The class was of boys and girls approaching their mock GCSEs, and we were part of a ‘citizenship day’ in which professionals from several agencies made presentations, including the fire service, the police, the NHS trust, the Samaritans and the ambulance service. These had all sparked the interest of the kids and they were in the right mood to engage.

We always start our session by introducing ourselves by our names, what we do or did for our livelihood or career, familiarity with the county, perhaps a word or two about our family – all to get across the message that lay Justices of the Peace are ordinary people, representing (in theory) most aspects and levels of society and ethnic backgrounds, our role – unique anywhere in the world – being that we dispense justice from a personal knowledge and experience of life as lived by those appearing before us. A fine principle, if a little unrealistic. Still, it is more true today than forty years ago, let alone at any time previously.

This session began with my colleague introducing herself, and then it was my turn. Afterwards, I recollected a rather odd reaction from one of the lads as soon as I had given my name.

Up to that point I think he had been as relaxed and smiling as most of his chums. He was sitting near the front and I guess I would have noticed if he had looked particularly glum.

However, as soon as I told the class my name, I saw this boy instantly freeze. He set his mouth in a grim line, and scarcely uttered three syllables for the rest of the session. He just looked very uncomfortable, and did all he could to avoid eye contact either with me or with my colleague.

Of course, I made no connection at the time with any other odd experience over previous months, let alone the man in Court 3. Why should I have done so?

In retrospect, the reader might think what a pity it was that I did not ask the teacher the name of the boy who had so instantly disengaged.

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